Many years old I used a large lawnmower to collect leaves and clippings instead of raking them up. It saved many hours of work.
Yes, a good idea. Unfortunately my hedges are either along paved or gravelled surfaces, so running a lawnmower to pick up the cuttings would not be wise!
The old mower I used had powerful suction that would effectively hoover up cuttings, even on a concrete surface. Not such a good idea on gravel though!
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Also in the triffid race are the verbascums (mulleins) which are very impressive in size and about to burst into into colour (yellow).
Within them are lots of caterpillars of the mullein moth (cucullia verbasci), which are beautiful.
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I have several in the garden. My good lady commented the other day that they are an invasive species from South Europe … but she was looking up another variant of lungwort.
Apparently, the flowers are too small to attract the usual pollinators. And my hens don’t like the seeds.
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My mother in law’s hedge.
Advice on when I should take the hedge trimmer to it would be appreciated.
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Gardening related.
Anybody like to guess the price to supply and install 10 panel garden fence, as photo below. (1ft base, with 2ft castle top).
Late spring to late summer, during active growth, is the usual time for routine trimming.
Avoid cutting it in hot or dry conditions when it may be stressed. Also check that there are no birds nesting in it.
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Thanks Chris,
I’ll wait until August.
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August should be fine as long as we don’t get a drought this summer. No harm in doing it earlier if there’s new growth to be trimmed back.
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I wait until I feel comfortable there are no birds left in nests .
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Definitely wait until August, you can check for bird nests but inevitably may miss a few. Some birds may be on a second brood or trying again in the event of failure or predation of the first.
Sometimes even if you’re careful, removing new growth can open up a view and expose nests to predators.
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My guess is hebe
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Thank you. Your guess is better than mine. I haven’t a clue.
The ‘pod’ will open up to form a pair of leaves. That’s how hebe’s grow, a little unusual.
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Thank you, Chris.